Larger Story 1

Lea and I were sitting last night watching the news. Political chaos. Covid around the world. Portable morgues. Hospitals gushing. Rapid tests before Thanksgiving. Covid induced suicide among teens. Restaurants going all digital. The Christmas tree going up at Rockefeller Center. It was actually pretty overwhelming to take it all in. Our country has hints of spinning out of control, more than usual. The great United States is struggling. We are.

And when the tinge of despair starts to root around and you feel the very real weight of uncertainty pressing on your heart, you can actually feel your heart wondering, “What’s going to happen? How’s this all going to go? How will things change?” When you see the story of the cars lined up for miles waiting for their nose to be swabbed, waiting for a box of food, waiting to Facetime a loved one who seems to be declining, your heart starts searching for something certain or someone certain to latch on to. Please let there be something bigger than the chaos.

There is.

There is a Larger Story. Thank you God there is a Larger Story. We must declare this to our uncertain hearts. Maybe even declare it with desperation. My friends Buddy and Larry spent time years ago writing down the truth of the Larger Story narrative in the form of 7 questions. It reminds us of the heritage that we are grafted into. My pastor read to me this week from Second Peter. "Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles."

Yes. Stimulate my mind to wholesome thinking...recall the words spoken in the past....FRESH FOR TODAY. Larger Story.

I want it. I need it. That's what I'll invite us to over the next 7 weeks. A question a week about the Larger Story to stimulate my mind to wholesome thinking. I need it. I want it.

The Seven Questions.

1.Who is God?

A perfectly happy community of 3 Persons whose nature is holiness and way of relating is love.

2. What's He up to?

Glorifying Himself by beautifying us.

3. Who are we?

Gender unique image-bearers of God who....

4.What's gone wrong?

...gave away the capacity to desire, know, love and enjoy God. This disconnect is the deepest source of all that is wrong.

5.How did God remedy the problem?

He implemented a New Covenant by giving us a new Start (forgiveness), a new Heart (real life), a new Identity (adoption) and a new Power (the Holy Spirit) through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

6.What's the Spirit doing now?

Making us into "little Christs" through detaching us from second things and attaching us to first things.

7.How do we join Him?

He invites us to participate in the community of the Trinity and to relate out of that community in our community.

While the news cycle spawns further chaos and my heart does the same at times, I need the steady, stable, not shifting story of God to be my Larger Story. It is THE epic, glorious, gutsy, ravaging story of the Real God ransoming Real hearts for Real Life. Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy.

Stimulate my mind and heart with the Larger Story. Root me there.

There's more.